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Gun control: Lawmakers conflicted on smaller magazines

The gun-control debate

President Barack Obama has called for toughening America’s gun laws to confront mass shootings and everyday gun violence, betting that public opinion has shifted enough to support the broadest push for gun control in a generation.

Your Right to Know

By Jennifer SteinhauerThe New York Times • Tuesday February 19, 2013 7:20 AM

WASHINGTON — Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., is haunted by many things that emerged from
the investigation of the December mass shooting at a Newtown elementary school. Among them is the
nagging question of what prompted the gunman, Adam Lanza, to put down his assault rifle after
killing 20 children and pick up the pistol he used to end his own life.

“We do know that, historically in these instances, amateurs have trouble switching magazines,”
Murphy said, referring to the high-capacity ammunition-feeding device used by Lanza to shoot scores
of bullets in seconds. “I believe, and many of the parents there believe, that if Lanza had to
switch cartridges nine times versus two times there would likely still be little boys and girls
alive in Newtown today.”

It is that conviction that has helped put fresh scrutiny on the size of magazines as Congress
debates new gun laws.

While influential lawmakers in both parties view a proposed ban on assault weapons as
politically toxic, lawmakers seem increasingly open to a ban on high-capacity magazines, such as
the 15- and 30-round devices that have been used in shooting rampages from Aurora, Colo.; to
Tucson, Ariz. — where congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head — to Newtown.

Constitutional lawyers, including many conservatives, generally believe that limiting magazine
size falls well within the boundaries of recent Supreme Court decisions on gun rights, and evidence
suggests that a ban on large magazines would have reduced the number of those killed in mass
shootings.

A growing number of lawmakers say they see a difference between limits on magazine sizes, which
they would support, and an assault-weapons ban, which they would not.

“I see them as separate,” said Sen. Angus King Jr., I-Maine. “It’s the difference between
appearance and functionality. High-capacity magazines have contributed to a lot of these
tragedies."

But the issue also gives pause to many lawmakers, particularly Senate Democrats up for
re-election in states that generally support gun rights. They seem torn over whether a restriction
on ammunition erodes the rights of law-abiding gun owners, as its opponent insist, or is merely a
mild annoyance for those owners in the name of public safety.